Global History

Chair of Global Economic and Social History

• Aim

  The staff members of the chair group Global Economic and Social History (GESH) do research on the history of worldwide flows of goods, people and ideas. They explicitly do so from a global perspective, and formulate alternatives for traditional Eurocentric interpretations of history. The group collaborates closely with the International Institute of Social History (IISH) in Amsterdam, that specializes in the history of labour, capitalism and social movements. We ask questions like: what is the long-term influence of globalization on social inequality? How is capitalist development connected to colonialism, slavery and other large-scale forms of coercion, and what is the role of divisions along lines of gender, race and social class? What are the effects of large-scale migration on labour relations, transfers of knowledge and social movements? How do economic changes affect social, political and cultural processes, including the formation of heritage and collective memory?

• Our focus areas

  • Global history from a non-European perspective
  • Globalisation, colonialism and capitalism
  • Social history of Latin America and Sub-Sahara Africa
  • Commodity Frontiers, extractivism and ecology
  • Social inequality and social movements
  • Structural inequalities (gender, race, social class)
  • (Coerced) labour and migration

• Teaching

  We teach the following courses: BA History and International studies (HIS): World History 500-1800 and 1800-present; Latin America in modern history; Sub-Sahara Africa and the world; History and Social sciences; Transatlantic connections; International Relations from below; Research Seminar Global Economic and Social History 1500-present; BA Geschiedenis: Kapitalisme en ongelijkheid; Geschiedenis en sociale wetenschappen; MA/RMA Global History: Slavery, abolition and compensation; From Source to Public; Challenging capitalist modernity; Team research in action. In addition, we offer several tutorials and supervision of theses and internships.

• Research projects

  • Land Grabbing Empire: State Strategies and Large Scale Land Transfers in Dutch Expansion (16th-18th century) 
  • Societal support for energy transitions: the anti-nuclear power movement as historical case study
  • Representations of race in Dutch modernity
  • Slavery insured: The Amsterdamse Assurantie Compagnie 1771
  • The tensions of freedom. Tran Duc Thao's anticolonial thought, activism and influence in post-WWII France

• Teaching Staff

  Pepijn Brandon, Professor of Global Economic and Social History
  Ulbe Bosma, Professor by special appointment of International and Comparative Social History and senior researcher IISH
  Lucas Poy, Assistant Professor in Global Economic and Social History, with a focus on Latin America
  Wesley Mwatwara, Assistant Professor of Global Economic and Social History (specialisation Sub-Sahara Africa)
  Patricia Schor, postdoctoral researcher
  Karel Davids, Emeritus full professor of Economic and Social History

• PhD students

  Dominique Ankoné, The tensions of freedom. Tran Duc Thao's anticolonial thought, activism and influence in post-WWII France

  Marten Buschman,  Henri van Kol, 1852-1925

  Tamira Combrink, Slaves, commodities and logistics

  Alexander Geelen, Slavery and mobility in the Dutch early modern overseas empire

  Gerrie Lierens,  Actoren en discrepanties op de Nederlandse arbeidsmarkt na 1945

  Sam Miske, Land Grabbing in Southeast Asia: Company, Conquest, and Indigenous Power in the Banda Islands and West-Java, 17th Century

  Zawdie Sandvliet.  Land Grabbing in the Dutch Atlantic: Land, Indigenous rights and African slavery in New Netherland and Suriname

  Eva Seuntjens,  Slavery insured: The Amsterdamse Assurantie Compagnie 1771

  Hanna te Velde, Colonial Girl Powe

  Pauline Wittebol, Amsterdamse handelsnetwerken en Amerika in de 18de eeuw

• Institutional embedding

  GESH researchers are members of these institutes:

  • International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam (IISG)
  • National Research School N.W.Posthumusinstituut: network Economy and Society of the Pre-Industrial Low Countries in Comparative Perspective
  • Stevin Centre for History of Science and Humanities
  • Commodity Frontiers Initiative
  • International Association of Labour History Institutions
  • RED Latinoamericana de Trabajo y Trabajadores
  • Centro de Estudios Historicos de los Trabajadores y las Izquierdas

Chair of Water and Environmental History

• Aim

  This research group approaches the relationship between humans, landscape and animals from an ecological, social-economic and political perspective. In this way we hope to contribute to a more sustainable world. Questions we ask include: how do people cope with climate change and other ecological changes? What are the historical roots of the globalization of more sustainable behaviour and politics? How is nature an agency in historical development?

• Our focus areas

  • History of water institutions and water governance
  • Drinking water, drought and climate change
  • Natural disasters, water security and floods
  • Animal-human relations

• Teaching

  We coordinate the minor European urban and cultural history and the RMA Global history track, and teach the following courses, in cooperation with other Chair groups: BA History and International studies: World History 500-1800; Water and Enviromental History; BA Geschiedenis: Amsterdam: A Historical Introduction; MA/RMA Global History: History of Natural Disasters; Research Projects. Also we offer tutorials on environmental history and advise on theses and internships.

• Research projects

  • Coping with drought – An environmental history of drinking water shortages and climate adaptation in the Netherlands, 1550-1850.
  • In search of the poldermodel – History of the water boards
  • History of the NAP

• Teaching Staff

  Petra van Dam,  regular and sponsored professor of Water and Environmental History
  Milja van Tielhof, Postdoc and Senior-researcher at the Huygens Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis

• PhD students

  Berco Hoegen, Geschiedenis van de knotbomenplantages in het rivierengebied

  Dániel Moerman, ‘When the Well Runs Dry’: Drinking Water and Climate Adaptation in the Eastern Netherlands, 1600-1850

• Institutional embedding

  WEH researchers are members of these institutes:

  • Environmental Humanities Center
  • National Research School N.W.Posthumusinstituut: netwerk Societies in their environment: regional analysis of urban and rural developmen
  • Huygens Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis

Chair of Global History from an Anthropological Perspective

• Aim

  Global History from an Anthropological Perspective is a research group that combines methodological and conceptual insights from history and anthropology to come to a better understanding of societies’ present and past. Research and teaching focuses on themes such as migration, ethnicity, nationalism and cosmopolitanism; state formation and the construction of sovereignty and identity; and the social and political dimensions within which history and memory exist. Our research encompasses the modern and contemporary history of Europe, Africa, and Asia and the Caribbean.

• Our areas of focus

  • The place of Europe and its colonies in global history
  • Methods and concepts of anthropology and the social sciences in historical research
  • Migration
  • Globalization, colonialism and capitalism
  • The past and present of Eastern Europe, East Asia, the Middle East and North Africa
  • The politics and public representations of the past; politics of heritage
  • Social inequality and social movements
  • History of sexuality
  • Materiality and imagination
  • Digital humanities

• Teaching

  Our staff members teach bachelor's courses on Current Debates in Global History; Global Migration History; China in World History; and History of North Africa and the Middle East. They also teach the  master course: Topics in the History and Anthropology of Mobility. We provide thesis supervision for bachelor’s and master’s students wishing to write about the history and anthropology of migration, mobility, state and identity formation, and transnationalism based on archival research, "ego documents" and life history research, material culture studies and anthropological methods and techniques.

• Research projects

  • Migratie vanuit China naar Europa
  • Etniciteit en herinneringspolitiek in Marokko
  • Geloof, seksualiteit, geweld en herinnering in Iran en Syrië
  • Kunst en politiek in de Oekraïne 
     

• Teaching Staff

  Norah Karrouche, Assistant professor
  Pál Nyíri, Professor of Global History from an Anthropological Perspective
  Younes Saramifar, Assistant Professor

• PhD students

  • Natalia Goezevataja, onderzoeksproject: Oekraïense kunstenaars en dekolonisering
  • Zhang Xiaoke, nationalisme en dekolonisering in de Chineze opera

• Institutional embedding

  Our staff members also hold appointments at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology and the Huygens Institute of the History of the Netherlands (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences). Moreover, they are members of research centres and schools including:

  • Migration and Diversity Centre
  • Posthumusinstituut
  • KNAW Humanities Cluster (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences)

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